Skip to main content

January [review]

We're a month down already! My plan was to slow down a bit this year with a bias towards hand-sewing. And that has definitely been happening. The project I've been enjoying the most has been the #1yearofstitches hoop. Read about some of the background here, but the basic premise is a stitch a day for a year. This is my hoop at the end of January. No plan, no pressure, just 15 minutes or so every day. I love seeing this develop.


I've also been doing a fair amount of English Paper Piecing. I received the first installment of the Dear Jane paper pieces programme mid-month and I've been busy stitching up the blocks. Some of the pieces are TINY! I need to remember that if I don't add the sashing as I go I will hate myself and never finish this project!


There's been time spent at the machine too, don't worry! I've been making blocks for a number of projects and despite saying that 2017 wasn't about blocks, at least not in the way 2016 was, I made over 70 in January! I completed all the blocks for my #365 quilt. I've stalled a bit on adding the borders - I hate long seams, but I have a plan to get me over the finish line, so I hope to share this with you soon. Iv'e also been making blocks for  Baby Finn's quilt. He arrived at the start of the month and he needs his quilt. Not quite over the finish line, but progress!


I've also dabbled in the Farmer's Wife, the Splendid Sampler, #52weekswiththequiltersplanner and #snailday. I need to post some updates for both the Farmer's Wife and the Splendid Sampler because I've made progress recently and haven't shared! But this is one of my recent Splendid Sampler blocks and it might just be my favourite!



I finally got round to starting my giant Swoon quilt - I need 16 blocks.


And I revisted an old project - this is Fireworks and I hadn't touched it in 3 years!


And what about finishes: slim pickings this month, but I love this hexy cushion. Sadly, it has been pilfered... apparently it's Mia's new cushion!


Onwards!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

365 Quilt Challenge 2016 [A finish]

I can't believe I've just typed that heading! When I made the block for January 1st 2016 I could not have imagined the journey this quilt would have taken me on. So make yourselves comfortable and grab a cup of tea, because this blog post may get lengthy! I'd seen the 365 Quilt Challenge on Facebook. I think every quilter on Facebook must have been aware of it. Loads of my friends had signed up and it kept popping up as a "Page you might like" thing. In the end, in November 2015, I joined the group, had a poke round. Decided it wasn't for me. One of the things that really put me off were the fabric requirements: you needed x amount of dark dark fabric, x amount of medium dark fabric, x amount of dark medium, medium, light medium, light, background.... I just couldn't get my head round those requirements. I'd looked at the mock ups on the wesbite and couldn't bring myself to pick a colour. I put it to the back of my mind. But I had obvious

Hidden Agenda [A Finish]

This is very possibly my favourite ever finish - I know I've said that in the past, but this one is going to be hard to beat. This time last year, I attended a day long lecture/workshop with Tula Pink and it was inspiring. Having not really loved her fabrics in the past (but loved her patterns), I suddenly saw them in a new light, linked with my 2018 new year's resolution to try more fussy cutting). Fast forward 8 months and I confess that my Tula stash has expanded quite a lot. I found some UK shops with older ranges of fabric, splurged on a few destashes and found the odd piece of her fabric already in my stash. The plan was always (and remains) to make a Smitten quilt, but I'm well aware that I have plenty of fabric to make other projects as well! So when I saw the Hidden Agenda quilt pattern by Angela Pingle, this fabric sprung instantly to mind.... and we all know I love a rainbow! And what could be better than rainbowfied Tula? I was ably assisted by my friend Ti

February Embroidery Along [A Finish]

I've really been enjoying my embroidery this year, after not doing very much last year. One of the challenges I set myself at the start of the year was to learn to colour tint my fabric before adding the embroidery - I love buying the pre-printed panels, but I'd like to do this myself as well. And the opportunity to learn this arose in February. Meg Hawkey of Crab Apple Hill Studio hosted a stitchalong to celebrate National Embroidery Month, and the first step was colour your fabric. I bought the pencils she advises,  the blending stumps, something called fabric extender and the pigma pen. And I gave it a go. My first attempt ended badly. Because the one thing I didn't buy was a new, clean paintbrush. So when I came to add the fabric extended, it went all bleary and muddy as, despite cleaning the paintbrush thoroughly, it obviously wasn't clean enough. It was unsalvageable so I started again, and I was so much happier with the results. The practice piece was, in

Labels

Show more

Archive

Show more